Words as Weapons: Misinformation and Criminal Governance in Colombia

In countries experiencing large-scale criminal violence, civilians are constantly exposed to multiple narratives from different actors about violent events. Increasingly, these narratives come not only from state institutions or civil society, but also from the criminal groups themselves. Although these narratives have the potential to alter the way civilians legitimate those events and trust the actions states can take to counter criminal groups, their effects have not been widely studied. In this project, we investigate how civilians process competing narratives in high-crime environments. We draw on evidence from an online, nationally representative survey conducted in Colombia, a country experiencing high levels of organized violence. The study examines how exposure to competing narratives influences civilians’ attitudes, the types of reactions from civil society that shape these effects, and which interventions can be effective in reducing civilians' vulnerability to misinformation. This project will likely shed light on the effects of criminal misinformation on civilians’ perceptions of states, but also on the ways in which organized civil society can successfully counter those narratives.